Monastic Ambiguities in the New Millennium

Abstract

Taking at face value Archdeacon Hildebrand’s ringing cry for reform at the 1059 synod in Rome, historians have concluded that 'ambiguous' communities of the early 1000s had become thoroughly ‘secularized’, and that women’s monastic spirituality had become almost non-existent. Instead of attempting to find arguments for or against the classic narrative of disastrous ‘secularization’, this chapter focuses on what we know about how these women expressed and positioned themselves. It makes three observations. First, that there still existed an internal culture that nurtured the shaping of ‘ambiguous’ monastic identities. Second, that abbesses and their associates deployed a range of ‘coping strategies’ to secure the long-term future of ‘ambiguous’ communities in light of increased competition and volatile relations with the region’s elites. And finally, that the reform of a female house by no means spelled a better future for its membership.